What to do With Your Empty Candle Vessel

Posted by Kendall Trout | April 22, 2017

So, you were lucky enough to snag one of the limited number of handcrafted Sisterhood Collection candles. You brought it into your home and let its sweet fragrance dance in the air while you read or washed dishes or watched your kids play outside. It burned for hours, reminding you of the light its maker shines against the darkness of war. It served as a tangible piece of empowerment while sitting quietly on your coffee table.

When you go to light it this time, though, something’s different. Your candle’s fragrant wax has dwindled and the wicks begin to pop and fizzle as they reach their metal fasteners. You start to wonder what to do with it now.

While emptied out, your candle’s journey is not over. There is new purpose and new life available in emptiness if you look hard enough. And while this may be a poignant metaphor for life and our projects in the Middle East, I’m also talking about what you can do with your candle’s hand-painted or hand-hammered vessel once the wax is burned through.

Whether you clean it out and plant new life inside its hand-painted walls or offer snacks to guests in your home held in hand-hammered copper, your empty candle will continue to serve as a reminder of the remaking that is still happening—the empowerment that its creation and your purchase made possible.

As you recycle and repurpose your candle vessel, know that because of your partnership, women in Iraq are being empowered to repurpose their skills to make something beautiful—to make a future. And you get to keep a piece of that story in your home forever.